ABSTRACT
When one reads the scholarly literature on the nexus of public opinion and economic conditions, one is quickly reminded of Goethe’s Dr. Faust and his scholarly frustrations. The material is vast and the findings are consistently inconsistent. While most countries have developed small cottage industries of pollsters and scholars who have probed the linkage between a nation’s economic performance and support for the government, few students of political economy would claim that the issue has been resolved. In fact, after several decades of systematic research into the matter, the only thing that is clear is that the results are unclear. There is a connection between economic conditions and public opinion, but the strength and direction of that link as well as its mode of operation are still somewhat obscure or inconclusive.
